Woven textile products are manufactured by interlacing fibers and/or yarns into grid-like patterns. There are two common types of woven textile products—woven textiles and knitted textiles. Both woven textiles and knitted textiles are typically laid out in grid-like patterns, but they are formed through different ways. FIG. 1A illustrates a piece of woven textile, where strands of yarn cross over and under to form a grid-like pattern. FIG. 1B illustrates a piece of knitted textile, where strands of yarn loop around to form a grid-like pattern.
Woven textiles have several advantages over knitted textiles. For example, woven textiles have better dimensional stability; that is, they do not stretch out of shape. They also have better coverage, which provides for thermal protection from heat or cold, and sun protection. Woven textiles also have a lower profile, which makes then less bulky and thick. In addition, they are also lighter because they require less yarn to cover the same area.
However, one disadvantage of woven textiles over knitted textiles is that creating a 3D woven product generally requires stitching together more than one distinct woven textile. The line where two distinct woven textiles are stitched together forms a seam. Different distinct woven textiles, and thus seams, are typically needed where the product changes dimension or direction, adds a new part, or changes the material of the yarn. For example, as described below in connection with FIG. 2, a woven shirt would normally require seams to connect different parts, such as the front, back, and the arms.
When different pieces of fabric are cut and sewn together, a certain amount of fabric will be wasted. Additionally, cutting and sewing fabrics is typically a manual process. Therefore, there has been a demand in the garment manufacturing industry to produce seamless garments in order to reduce both material and labor costs, and to leverage the economies of scale.